


bathroom break

by taass64



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:52:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7706569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taass64/pseuds/taass64
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>like the title says...</p>
            </blockquote>





	bathroom break

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little mini story in answer to Prompt Fic week 47 on the LJ S&H community page.  
> This is in answer to prompt: Starsky+Hutch; the most boring stakeout ever (until it wasn't)
> 
> original prompt here: http://starsky-hutch.livejournal.com/1574744.html#comments

 

Hutch tried once again to grumble something about how bored he was, but a yawn got in the way.  The noise that ensued roused Starsky from his thought train enough to tease.

“You sound just like Snoopy, Hutch,” he said.

“Yeah, well…”  Hutch was too tired to finish the sentence.  Starsky was too tired to make him.

Leather squeaked against leather as they both wriggled in their seats, readjusting their too tall to be cooped up in a Torino front seat bodies and continued staring at the apartment entrance for now the fourth straight hour.  The street was dark and empty, the streetlamps giving only a minimal glow to the front door they were watching. 

Their snitch, Anthony Oruga hadn’t shown.  He was supposed to meet up with his contact for a buy outside his building, at which point Starsky and Hutch would arrest said contact.  They’d have eyewitness accounts and collect ironclad proof of the transaction, getting them closer to bringing down a major drug ring.  They sat in a parking lot facing his building, waiting. Problem was, so far, no sign of Oruga. 

“Hutch, I say we go.  It’s almost eleven o’clock.  He shoulda been here hours ago.  He probably changed his mind or somethin’ and we’re wasting the whole night sittin’ here.” Starsky rested his elbow on the steering wheel, chin in hand, looking through the windshield.

“Dobey says we stay.”

“Dobey ain’t sittin’ in this car all night listening to you grouch and watching absolutely nothin’ happen right before his eyes.”

“It’s too important.  You know that.  If he does show, it will be well worth it.  We’ve done this before.  Just like Crandell last year, Oruga’s greed’s got him in so deep he’s got to help us to save himself.”

“I know you’re right.  Just, my eyes won’t stay open.  Gimme more coffee, huh?”

Hutch reached behind the seat, grabbing the thermos and handing it to Starsky without taking his eyes off the apartment door.  Starsky mindlessly poured and sipped the coffee, then handed it to Hutch, took it back, and the next hour passed as they silently shared coffee while staring straight ahead at the dark quiet across the street and retreating back into their own thoughts.

Hutch finally broke the silence.  “Starsky, did you ever think about names and how they sometimes fit a person?”

“Hutch, did you notice how much darker the sky is getting?  I mean, not just it’s almost midnight dark, but a storm is comin’ dark?  If it rains, the whole thing could be blown.  Oruga’s contact might insist on goin’ inside and then we can’t do this thing.” 

Relax, Starsk.  It’s not supposed to rain.  Answer me, did you ever think about names?”

“I don’t know if I should be scared or flattered you’re thinkin’ like me.”

“Am I?”

“You mean like how my life would have been different if I’d been an Anderson?  We had this discussion already, Hutch.”

“No.  like what names mean, like in Spanish, Oruga means caterpillar.”

“So?”

“So, isn’t he like a caterpillar?”

“Who?”

“Oruga!”

“Hutch, I gotta pee.” 

“Listen, Starsk.  Oruga is fat and slow.  And he loves the green.  He eats through money like a caterpillar eats through leaves.”

“You’re stretching it, Buddy.”  Starsky said as he tried to find a comfortable position to take pressure off his bladder.

“And… “Hutch went on, “by talking to us, he has an opportunity to change, to have his charges dropped, and start a new life.”

“Like a butterfly?” Starsky said sarcastically, adjusting is position again, to no avail.

“Exactly.”

“Hutch, I think you’ve had too much caffeine and too little sleep.  You’re punch drunk.”

“Since when aren’t you interested in such things?”

“Since I have to pee.”

“I told you to go before we left the station.”

“Thanks, Mom, but I’ve just had several hours of coffee.   Don’t you have to go?”

“Do I ever?”

“No.  And frankly that’s weird.  C’mon look at that sky, Hutch.  The moon even disappeared.”  Starsky leaned in and craned his neck over the dashboard to see the sky above them through the windshield.  Hutch did the same.

“Hmmm.”  Hutch said.  “You might actually be right.”

“I’m right about a lotta things, you just don’t notice.  And right now I’m also right that I better get to a john.  There’s a gas station a block behind us.” He indicated behind them with his thumb and continued.  “I’ll be right back.”

“Better be quick,” Hutch said, “Oruga could show any minute.”

“We’ve both been hoping that for…”  Starsky turned his wrist over to look at his watch.  “…five hours now and counting.  Anything happens, just whistle.”

“You won’t hear a whistle from a block a-…”  Starsky slammed the door and was gone. “…way.”  Hutch finished.  He let out a long sigh.  “Just great.”  He said to himself, still staring at the same unmoving apartment door and the dimly lit street.  “Just great.”

Hutch’s thoughts turned back to Oruga and caterpillars when suddenly the sky opened up and rain fell in sheets, obliterating Hutch’s view through the windshield.  He strained to see the building across the street he’d been watching, but he could barely make out the edifice, never mind the door itself.  Starsky was right, Hutch was thinking, if Oruga and his contact showed up now they were screwed.  No way they could see them in time even if they did stay outside, which was doubtful now.

A streak of lightning then a thunderous boom loud enough to rock the Torino erupted from the sky and Hutch felt himself inexplicably anxious.  As minutes ticked by and thunder continued rolling and rain kept falling, Hutch began worrying that something was wrong.  Starsky should have been back.  Even in the rain, Starsky could run, even walk, a block, pee, and get back in just a couple minutes. He’d done it on many a stakeout before.

A cold and eerie feeling began creeping up from his guts as he finally saw figures in the darkness ahead.  One short and round like Oruga, and another, taller slimmer figure he was talking to.  What they’d been waiting for all night was about to go down.  Hutch would have to take action alone and hope Starsky would be back in time to back him up. 

He pulled his gun from his holster and shrank down in the seat, then eased the door open, trying to slip out of the car unnoticed in the storm.  He chanced a look down the street behind him but no partner was in sight.  That only increased Hutch’s unease.  Instinct told him someone might have tipped off Oruga’s contact.  He might have brought muscle with him.  Maybe getting Starsky alone was a bonus he cashed in on.  Hutch couldn’t think of any other reason Starsky wouldn’t have returned by now. 

Squatting beside the car, he gently closed the door again.  Instantly the rain saturated his clothing.  His hair was hanging in his face, dripping into his eyes and he wasn’t sure what his next move should be.  Now he had a decision to make.  Try to make the arrest alone, in a storm, with possible complications of extra muscle, or back down and find Starsky, possibly putting himself in the same danger Starsky was in.  He wasn’t crazy about his odds with either option.  “Starsk, why do you always need the bathroom at the most in opportune times?”  He cursed under his breath.

The wetter he got, the angrier he got at Starsky’s absence.  Hutch was quite aware of the feeling and knew it was because being angry at Starsky was less scary than being worried about what happened to him.  He squinted, trying to make out the two figures across the street and what they were doing, still figuring if he could make the arrest alone when suddenly he heard sirens in the distance behind him.  “What the hell?”  He muttered and turned to look back over his shoulder.  He couldn’t see anything yet, but the sirens were definitely headed his way.

When he looked back across the street, it was empty again.  “Damn!”  He cursed, “Damn it!  Where’d they go?”  He couldn’t see anything in front of the building anymore. 

He decided not to waste any more time looking since the lights attached to the sirens were now lighting up the street behind him.  He turned and realized two squad cars were now pulling into the gas station behind him where Starsky had been headed.  Keeping his gun in his hand he ran with all he had to the gas station, with a mantra in his head repeating “be okay Starsk, be okay Starsk, be okay….”

Hutch entered the station lot and saw Starsky leading a handcuffed Oruga to the back of one of the squad cars.  Starsky was holding his right arm at a funny angle and had a stream of blood dripping down his face from his scalp.  But he was there.  He was walking. 

“Starsky!”  Hutch yelled as he skidded to a stop in front of him.  “What happened?  What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you what’s goin’ on.  Oruga ain’t no caterpillar, snake is more like it.  A snake who’s goin’ to see just what happens when he bites the hand that feeds him.” He loaded Oruga into the back seat and turned to Hutch.  “Oruga tried to double cross us.  He wasn’t planning on meeting in front of his building at all.  I got here and walked in on the two of ‘em in the bathroom here, making the deal behind our backs.  He had no intention of lettin’ us arrest the guy.” 

“You’re bleeding, Starsk.  You okay?” Hutch asked, holstering his gun and helping Starsky close the squad car door.   Then Hutch grabbed Starsky’s jacket and pulled him under the overhang covering the gas pumps so they could talk out of the rain.

“They jumped me.  Had pipes and started swingin’ soon as I opened the door.  At first I don’t even think they knew it was me, just defending their money and drugs.  I think they broke my arm.”

Hutch carefully lifted Starsky’s arm and saw instantly it was broken.  “Your head isn’t looking too good either my friend,” he said. 

“Yeah, well…”  Starsky used his good arm to put his fingers to his head, winced, then brought his hand down to examine the blood. 

“Where’s the other guy?  Oruga’s contact?”

“He’s out cold.  Oruga was aimin’ for me, missed when I ducked, knocked his own guy out.  One o’ the uniforms is guarding him ‘till the ambulance comes.”  Just as he finished the sentence they could hear more sirens in the distance.  “Here it comes, now.”

“While you were gone, Starsk, I was watching these two guys that I thought were Oruga and his contact.  I wonder who they were.  I was trying to figure out what to do and where you got to when I saw the lights so I headed this way.  Thank God you’re okay.”

“Sorry ‘bout that Hutch.  But look at it this way.  It was lucky.  If I didn’t have to use the john we’d still be sittin’ over there in that car all night for nothin’.”

“Yeah.  But no more heading to the bathroom in the middle of things.  Next time you might not be so lucky.  C’mon, let’s get you to a hospital, fix that arm.”

“Hang on a minute, huh, Hutch.  I never did pee.”

 

 

  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
